Police identify burn victims in Bloomingdale fire

BLOOMINGDALE – An intense fast-moving early morning fire badly injured two people and destroyed their Forest Drive apartment while displacing 15 of the building’s occupants on Friday.

Residents of the Mountain Top Apartment Complex say they heard loud noises, perhaps even a boom, and some said they saw a flash as the fire intensified. The victims were evacuated by helicopter to be treated for smoke inhalation and burns on their faces as firefighters from several towns showed up to battle the roaring fire.

Stephanie Duffy, who lives in the apartment below, said she heard loud banging noises from above. “I looked out the window and I yelled, ‘Is everything OK?’ and the woman upstairs cried, ‘No, I need help.’ I could see flames shooting out of the side of the apartment and I said ‘Run out the back,’ ” she said.

Duffy said she saw the man and woman from the upstairs apartment run through the flames with their hair smoking. She said she banged on residents’ windows, urging them to get out.

“If it wasn’t for her, who knows what would have happened,” said Tara McPartland who lives next door to the burning apartment.

The victims, Brian C. Timony, 33, and Monica Linares, 30, were taken from the building and flown by medical evacuation helicopter to the burn unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

Timony was arrested in Pequannock on Jan. 5 during a traffic stop on a charge of possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Police said that Timony, a passenger in the car, was trying to conceal a plastic bag containing white chunks believed to be crack cocaine. The charges were to be heard in municipal court.

“I was filling up my water bottle in my kitchen, I looked to the left and saw the whole building in flames,” said Daniel Mason, 15. “There may have been a small boom but it was the flash that caught my eye.”

The first police officer arrived on the scene about 10 minutes after the flash, and rushed to the apartment building to knock on doors, said Ellen Mason, Daniel’s mother.

The fire destroyed unit 80B, where it’s believed to have originated, and made seven other units uninhabitable because of smoke and water damage. Four units of a neighboring building also were damaged.

The American Red Cross was helping five of the families find temporary shelter in hotels and providing money for food and clothing. Some people can’t return to their apartments because the power has been shut off, but other units sustained damaged related to the fire depending on their proximity.

When Bloomingdale firefighters arrived at about 7:30 a.m. the second-floor apartment was fully engulfed, First Assistant Fire Chief Mark Lime said, adding that firefighters put out the blaze in five minutes.

Firefighters from Butler, Pequannock, Kinnelon and Riverdale assisted in dousing the flames. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Lime said he expected residents won’t be able to get back into their apartments for five days.

Fire fighters battled a blaze in a garden apartment at Mountain Top Estate Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 in Bloomingdale. The two residents in the apartment where the fire originated were transported by helicopter to the hospital from Walter T. Bergen school on Glenwild Ave

BLOOMINGDALE – An intense fast-moving early morning fire badly injured two people and destroyed their Forest Drive apartment while displacing 15 of the building’s occupants on Friday.

Residents of the Mountain Top Apartment Complex say they heard loud noises, perhaps even a boom, and some said they saw a flash as the fire intensified. The victims were evacuated by helicopter to be treated for smoke inhalation and burns on their faces as firefighters from several towns showed up to battle the roaring fire.

Stephanie Duffy, who lives in the apartment below, said she heard loud banging noises from above. “I looked out the window and I yelled, ‘Is everything OK?’ and the woman upstairs cried, ‘No, I need help.’ I could see flames shooting out of the side of the apartment and I said ‘Run out the back,’ ” she said.

Duffy said she saw the man and woman from the upstairs apartment run through the flames with their hair smoking. She said she banged on residents’ windows, urging them to get out.

“If it wasn’t for her, who knows what would have happened,” said Tara McPartland who lives next door to the burning apartment.

The victims, Brian C. Timony, 33, and Monica Linares, 30, were taken from the building and flown by medical evacuation helicopter to the burn unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

Timony was arrested in Pequannock on Jan. 5 during a traffic stop on a charge of possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Police said that Timony, a passenger in the car, was trying to conceal a plastic bag containing white chunks believed to be crack cocaine. The charges were to be heard in municipal court.

“I was filling up my water bottle in my kitchen, I looked to the left and saw the whole building in flames,” said Daniel Mason, 15. “There may have been a small boom but it was the flash that caught my eye.”

The first police officer arrived on the scene about 10 minutes after the flash, and rushed to the apartment building to knock on doors, said Ellen Mason, Daniel’s mother.

The fire destroyed unit 80B, where it’s believed to have originated, and made seven other units uninhabitable because of smoke and water damage. Four units of a neighboring building also were damaged.

The American Red Cross was helping five of the families find temporary shelter in hotels and providing money for food and clothing. Some people can’t return to their apartments because the power has been shut off, but other units sustained damaged related to the fire depending on their proximity.

When Bloomingdale firefighters arrived at about 7:30 a.m. the second-floor apartment was fully engulfed, First Assistant Fire Chief Mark Lime said, adding that firefighters put out the blaze in five minutes.

Firefighters from Butler, Pequannock, Kinnelon and Riverdale assisted in dousing the flames. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Lime said he expected residents won’t be able to get back into their apartments for five days.

Fire fighters battled a blaze in a garden apartment at Mountain Top Estate Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 in Bloomingdale. The two residents in the apartment where the fire originated were transported by helicopter to the hospital from Walter T. Bergen school on Glenwild Ave